Basic Building Techniques and a Tutorial

Hello gamers!

We all put hard work into our little toy soldiers and we want our terrain to be equally appealing. If you're like me, you try to do this without breaking the bank. Some commercial buildings can cost up to 50 or 60 dollars a pop. That's crazy. Here is a short tutorial on how to get some good looking buildings with a little work and some foamcore.

Materials:

Foamcore/board
Cardboard (Optional)
Ruler
Ball Point Pen
Razor Knife (Mine is Self Retracting)
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Skinny Sticks (Skinny Sticks are sold at Wal Mart and they are long/thin rectangle shaped wood)
Granny Grating
Some Paints

That's it. All of these things can be gathered cheaply. The total cost of materials shown was $10. I can make usually 4-5 buildings with one sheet of foamboard, so the cost is $2 to $2.50 per building. Pretty good way to make terrain without killing your wallet.

Step 1: Laying out the structure.

Once you have the shape of your building settled in your mind, begin tracing out the walls on the foamcore. Use a ruler and be precise. Putting in the extra time to make sure everything is straight and level will save you a great deal of headache later on. I try to draw along one edge so I know at least one side is perfectly straight.

Once you've sketched the outline of your building, layout where your windows and doors will go. I use a figure for reference for this. This may not be the case everywhere, but one thing I've noticed in my home is that the tops of my window frames are all level with the top of my door frame. I ignored that rule here, and paid the price ;{.

Step 2: Cutting and Gluing

Once that is done, cut out all the individual pieces but leave the doors and windows in for now. Foamcore has the peculiar ability to dull blades extremely quickly. It may be a good idea to have a few spares before starting. Once you've separated the pieces, cut out the doors and windows. The four corners of the window can be hard to do neatly, so poke out the corners with a sewing needle or other similar tool. This is what you're left with:

Before you get all glue happy, read Step 3 for Scribing. It is easier to scribe before you glue the building together, so if you wish to do this then do Step 3 before Step 2 (I forgot this time, but I always scribe before I glue).

 Now that you've scribed (or decided against it), proceed to glue your building together. First, cut a small groove where two walls will meet, this will hide the inner foam when the pieces are joined. It will look like this:

In the this picture you can see how the outer layer of paper will hide the inner foam when the two pieces are joined. This isn't necessary, but it looks much better this way. 

Now simply squirt some hot glue all over one piece and hold it on the adjoining piece. This should only take about 30 seconds. Be sure to remove any excess glue on the outside of the building. I like to add a second layer of glue on the inside to help strengthen it. Glue your two roof pieces together as well, but don't attach them to the building, unless you want them to be permanently on. Now you have this:

Step 3: Scribing

This is the really tedious part. Scribing is a great way to model stones, planks, bricks, and shingles. Begin to gently peel the outer layer of paper from your foamcore. I start at one corner and slowly work my way to the other corner. This can be very hard, if it doesn't all come off, don't gouge the foamcore trying (unless you want some bullet holes or explosion damage)

 For this building, I'm imagining the outer layer of the wall to be stucco, which was applied over grey stone. With that in mind, I drew shapes where I wanted the stone revealed:

Once this is done, trace out the object you want to model. Make a very light impression with the ballpoint pen. You will notice you can carve the surface of the foam this way. Once done, trace over your design several more times until it really pops.

Step 4: Painting and Detailing

I forgot to take pictures of the detailing stage but they are visible in the paint stage (sorry). Take your craft sticks and cut them up to use as door frames, window frames, and half timber. This is fairly self explanatory so have fun and throw on some detail. With that done, we can break out our granny grating. This is optional, but I like to use it in my windows because I like how it looks. Cut a square of granny grating and glue it inside your building, so it will show in the windows. Should look like this:

Now, before we begin painting, there is one critical stage here. Get some black wash (or really runny black paint) and get it in all the crevices of what you just scribed. This is super important, it dramatically increases the look of the scribed sections. 

Let it dry, and then paint your building to taste. I went with Black Cherry for the roof (Every building I make has this color roof). And a Chestnut Brown for the walls followed by Cocoa for the wood. The stones were painted Pavement.

After that you can detail further with some washing or dry brushing. The end result should look like this: 

This isn't the greatest building I've ever made, or ever seen. However, I'm pretty proud of it. This is a good way to get buildings for your games, and it comes with the added satisfaction of knowing that you made it. Best of all, it is easy to do, and very cheap. 

Let me know what you think either here or on TMP. 

Thanks, 

Ethan